A Colorado mother who fatally abused her seven-year-old daughter and lied about her health to receive handouts from charities worth at least $100,000 has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.
A judge issued the sentence to Kelly Turner on Wednesday after she pleaded guilty last month to child abuse, charitable fraud and theft.
Authorities say Turner lied to doctors about her daughter Olivia’s medical history while broadcasting her struggles to receive money and other favors from organizations like the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
The girl had received unnecessary operations and medications up until her death in Denver hospice care in 2017.
Turner also received a 13-year prison sentence to be served simultaneously with the 16-year sentence as a result of the felony theft and fraud charges she pleaded guilty to.
During the sentencing, deputy district attorney Christopher Gallo said that the plea agreement was “not complete justice, not perfect justice, but was “some level of justice”.
“It is unfortunate and very frustrating thing that the most insidious crimes a person can commit are also the most difficult to prosecute and prove,” Gallo said.
Olivia Grant’s death was initially listed as intestinal failure, but an autopsy found no evidence of the condition. Authorities have not declared what killed her, but according to a 2019 indictment doctors went along with a do-not-resuscitate order that Turner had signed.
Other conditions that Turner also claimed her daughter had – including a seizure disorder, a tumor and a buildup of fluid in the cavities deep within her brain – were similarly not found in the autopsy.
“The manner of death is best certified as undetermined,” the coroner wrote.
Turner moved to Colorado from Texas with her three daughters, and beginning in 2012 told local doctors that Grant was sick with numerous ailments and diseases. She convinced medical professionals to perform surgeries and fill prescriptions for illnesses her daughter did not have.
Authorities say Turner spent years fabricating her daughter’s illness, gaining sympathy from television news stories and charitable foundations such as Make-A-Wish, which even threw a “bat princess” costume party for Grant at a hotel that cost $11,000.
Throughout Turner’s campaign to bring attention to her dying daughter, she sought donations to help fulfill Grant’s dreams of “catching a bad guy” with police and of being a firefighter. A video put out by a suburban Denver municipal government shows Olivia riding on a truck, putting out a dumpster fire and telling firefighters to stand for attention – all of which were met with the little girl’s smiles and laughter despite several medical tubes poking out of her backpack.
According to the indictment, Turner allegedly received over $538,000 in Medicaid benefits and from GoFundMe donors.
Judge Patrica Herron ordered that Turner cannot financially benefit from Grant’s death.
“Whether that be because of a movie consultation, book consultation or book deals,” Herron said. “The order is Ms Turner shall not, and will not for the rest of her life, be allowed to benefit further financially from this case or the facts connected with this case.”
She went on to add that any money generated from the case for Turner should be donated to the charities that she defrauded.
At Grant’s first ER visit, a doctor thought she appeared to be growing normally. But the next year, a surgeon at the same hospital removed part of her small intestine and inserted a feeding tube.
Before Grant was admitted to hospice care, where she died, doctors said she had only been receiving 30% of the required nutrition, according to the indictment.
Grant’s grandfather, Lonnie Gautreau, who, alongside Grant’s father filed a $25m lawsuit against the Colorado Children’s hospital for mistreating Grant, recalled his granddaughter’s final moments.
“She opened her eyes and looked at me and recognized me and said, ‘Paw Paw, I’m hungry.’ She was hungry,” Gautreau said.
The case was resolved in August. A lawyer representing the grandparents said she could not comment further.
“If anybody spoke up and protected Olivia, she would be here today,” said Gautreau in court on Wednesday as he wept.
Psychiatrists say Turner’s behavior seems consistent with Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a psychological disorder in which parents or caregivers seek attention from the illness of their children or dependents and sometimes cause them injuries.
The disorder has increasingly been featured in popular movies and television series in recent years, including Sharp Objects, The Act and Run.
However, experts say these types of cases are not easy to detect. At one point, Turner herself brought up the syndrome during an interview with investigators. She denied she had it.
Associated Press contributed to this report
